Breakfast Choices Can Affect Your Health AND Decision-Making

You’ve heard it before – breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If your last meal the day before was around six or seven at night, then “stoking your metabolism” by introducing food in the morning when you wake up is crucial to boosting mental and physical energy levels. The breakfast food choices you make are also important. They can either support health and well-being, and your mental activities, or do quite the opposite. New research suggests that what you choose to eat may also influence decision-making throughout the day.

If you know anything about carbohydrates (grain-based foods), you know that refined grains can boost blood sugar quickly, and that blood-sugar high is usually followed by a crash or rapid decline in blood-sugar levels. Simple, whole grains that are less refined tend to offer modulated blood-sugar increases and declines. There’s been a general push by health experts either to limit consumption of refined grains or to always eat a grain product with a protein or fat, in order to moderate the impact of the digested sugars on blood-sugar level. A diet high in refined carbs is also credited with contributing to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Still, diets like the original Atkin’s low-carb diet and even certain version of the Paleo diet may not be healthy because of higher levels of saturated fat (from meats).

This new research found that a low-carb breakfast might make you more of a tolerant person. The theory is that eating low carb usually means eating more protein, and protein-rich meals boost dopamine in the brain. Specifically, proteins are broken down by digestion into amino acids, and amino acids target dopamine levels. Dopamine is involved in decision-making. The researchers wanted to see if a low-carb breakfast could actually influence or change decision-making.

The researchers paired up individuals and polled them all to see what they had for breakfast. The subjects then played an “ultimatum game” in which one individual (leader) from each pair was given money and instructions to decide how much of the money they would share with their partner. If the partner accepted the offer, both got the cash. If the partner rejected the leader’s offer, neither received any money.

The researchers found that “partners” who ate a low-carb breakfast were more likely to accept unfair or lowball offers. In fact, 76 percent of the partners accepted a lowball offer from their team leader, compared with only 46 percent of partners who consumed a high-carb breakfast.

In the second round of the research, 24 subjects came in to eat one of two breakfasts prepared by the researchers. One breakfast was a high-carb meal of bread, jam and fruit juice. The low-carb breakfast included ham, cheese and milk. The teams played the ultimatum game. The next day, the breakfasts were swapped and the same 24 individuals played the game again. The researchers found that overall, the subjects were more forgiving when they ate the low-carb meal. Blood tests confirmed that the low-carb meal raised levels of tyrosine, a precursor to dopamine, and high tyrosine levels were correlated with forgiving behavior. No link was ascribed to blood-sugar levels, which were also measured.

The researchers postulated that the higher dopamine levels either allowed the subjects to value a feeling of reward, even with lower dollar amounts being offered, or made them feel less aggressive and more rational and therefore willing to accept even “lowball” monetary offers. Whatever the reason, there did seem to be a direct influence on decision-making. Limitations included the small number of subjects and the fact that other nutrients, like fats, were not controlled for.

If you are going to choose a “breakfast of champions,” a breakfast that has balanced components of healthy ingredients, aim for about 300 to 400 calories. If you are eating “low carb,” you should still include a serving of some type of carbohydrate (grain, fruit, or vegetable) as a source of energy. Consider creating menu plans using some of the following food group ingredients:

Choose nutrition bars carefully, since many are highly processed and full of sugar, but you can occasionally have a “simple ingredient” protein bar (around 200 calories) with a piece of fruit and a latte or cup of milk.

Known as The HealthGal, expert contributor Amy Hendel is a popular medical and lifestyle reporter, nutrition and fitness expert, columnist, and brand ambassador, as well as a health coach. Trained as a physician assistant, she maintains a health coach private practice in New York and Los Angeles. Author of The Four Habits of Healthy Families, you can find her on Twitter @HealthGal1103 and on Facebook at TheHealthGal. Her personal mantra is “Fix it first with food, fitness, and lifestyle.”